English translation of environmental assessment report submitted to Marine Corps lacks information on dugongs
On February 6, at the Okinawa Defense Bureau Office, six groups, including the Citizens' Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa asked Deputy Director of the Okinawa Defense Bureau Umi Ikeda (second from right) to explain their sharing of information with the U.S. government.
February 9, 2014 Ryukyu Shimpo
Before February 8, the Okinawa Defense Bureau provided the U.S. Marine Corps with the application documents for the Henoko landfill to prepare for moving Futenma Air Station and the environmental impact assessment report. The bureau gave the Marine Corps the full Japanese text and excerpts of the documents in English.
However, the English version does not have charts of the dugongs’ feeding area. Citizens’ groups have questioned this. They claim that the Japanese government did not provide enough information to the U.S. government.
On February 6, the bureau revealed the documents provided to the Marine Corps in the meeting with six citizens’ groups, including the Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa.
The groups asked the bureau how the Japanese and U.S. governments share information on the documents. The bureau explained that they did not receive any questions from the U.S. government after they had provided the documents.
The bureau and the Okinawa Prefectural Government discussed four times on plans to control alien species and protect dugongs last year when the government was examining the application.
The bureau said that they did not tell the U.S. Government about what they discussed with the Okinawa Prefectural Government.
After the meeting with the bureau, Hideki Yoshikawa of the Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa said, “The English translation only provides the text information on the dugongs. It does not contain the dugongs’ feeding areas and migration routes. This is a problem.”
(English translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori)
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